1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for automatically opening and closing a pop-up rear door of a van using a drive motor or the like.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, large-sized vans such as recreational vehicles have become very popular. Needless to say, the pop-up rear door of the body of such a large van is fairly large and heavy. Thus, short people have difficulty in opening and closing the rear door. In order to solve this problem, Japanese Laid-Open Utility Model Publication No. Hei 5-52165 discloses an automatic door-closing system including a drive motor provided inside the body to wind the wire thereon, one end of which is connected to the rear door. Further, in order to automatically open the rear door, this automatic door-closing apparatus has a coil spring to open the rear door at an angle larger than the angle at which the urging force of the damper installed on the rear part of the vehicle body starts to work in the door press-up direction.
However, although it can be automatically opened by utilizing the urging force of the damper, the above-described automatic door-closing apparatus is incapable controlling the opening speed of the rear door.
Further, in the conventional automatic door-closing apparatus, it is necessary to mount an operation switch for issuing an instruction signal for opening and closing the rear door to a drive motor on the vehicle body. It is convenient to install the operation switch on the rear door, which necessitates the operation switch-installing space to be secured in the rear part of the vehicle body and wires to be installed in the rear part thereof.